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TB LAM – Paving the way for next-generation point-of-care testing

Meeting report

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common cause of death for people living with HIV (PLHIV). The diseases bring out the worst in each other, with each disease speeding up the progression of the other. In most cases, TB in PLHIV is diagnosed very late, or not at all. The most common TB test, sputum smear microscopy, does not work well in people with advanced HIV. Therefore there is an urgent need for non-sputum-based TB tests.

Urine is among the preferred sample types for TB point-of-care testing because it is easily accessible for almost everyone. TB LAM tests work using urine samples and can, therefore, be used as a true point-of-care (POC) test in low-resource settings.

This meeting will provide the latest information on TB LAM tests that are currently available on the market and the latest tests in the pipeline, share lessons from clinical trials and discuss the scalability and accessibility of these tests. The meeting will also explore the potential of TB LAM to be expanded to groups beyond PLHIV in the future.

Thursday, 6 February 2020, 15:00–17:00, Campus Biotech, Geneva
TOPIC PRESENTERS
Welcome and introduction Catharina Boehme, FIND
Welcome remarks Lucica Ditiu, Stop TB Partnership
Opening remarks Chiaki Noguchi, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan
Why POC tools matter Carol Nawina Nyirenda, CITAM+
The promise of TB LAM tests Morten Ruhwald, FIND (Presentation)
Policy update Alexei Korobitsyn, WHO (Presentation)
Panel discussion:
TB LAM tests: from development to policy uptake and implementation – where do we stand?
Moderator: Lara Vojnov, WHO
Panelists: Samuel Schumacher, FIND
Kathleen England, Fujifilm (Slide)
Duncan Blair, Abbott
Melissa Sander, Bamenda Center for Health Promotion and Research
Panel discussion:
Bringing POC LAM-based diagnostics to scale – can this bridge deadly TB testing gaps?
Moderator: Isaac Chikwanha, GHIT
Panelists: Bibiana Angarita Zambrano, Stop TB Partnership
Charles Sandy, AIDS/TB Programmes, Zimbabwe
Eliud Wandwalo, Global Fund
Karen Heichman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Nishant Kumar, Central TB Division, MoHFW, India
Summary & Close Sergio Carmona, FIND